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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30008274">This Can’t Work</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenclaw_Witch/pseuds/Ravenclaw_Witch'>Ravenclaw_Witch</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Enemies AU [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternative Universe - Enemies, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Identity Reveal, Light Angst, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Has a Crush on Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, but it gets happier, kind of a darker au</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 20:48:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,330</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30008274</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenclaw_Witch/pseuds/Ravenclaw_Witch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re kidding, right?”<br/>“It’s our best choice for the time being.”<br/>“You are aware we’re on opposite sides? You know good versus evil, creation vs destruction? The thing you all focused on for the past year, and now you want me to go against that and ally with him.”<br/>“Ladybug, this is a much bigger threat than they pose to us, so yes. You will work with Chat Noir until Hawkmoth is defeated and the miraculous are safe.”</p><p>Long ago, another Ladybug and Black Cat holder chose sides, the opposite sides. The Black Cat choosing ‘evil’ and the Ladybug went against him joining the ‘good’. Since then the two miraculous have been on opposite sides. But when the threat of Hawkmoth appears the two are forced to work together, for the good of everyone.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir &amp; Plagg, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire &amp; Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Enemies AU [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2231577</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Yeah, so this piece is admittedly a darker piece than my other one, still has some happier moments but you may want to avoid it since it starts off with some problems. Warning non-descriptive death in the first paragraph. I hope everyone enjoys it though.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Marinette’s first experience with the miraculous wasn’t a good one. Outside on a late night, the teen hadn’t even thought that there was something wrong. Until something flung past her. A Yo-Yo and a man propelled forward, followed by another. In that moment, Marinette made a decision that would change her life and chased after them. She never did see the entire fight, there was no way she could have. But she saw the ending, her dead predecessor and the black cat holder fleeing the scene. She didn’t think it would go further than that, but soon after Fu came to her and chose her as the new Ladybug. She’d expected to fight the other man, however he too had been replaced by Chat Noir. She knew not to make a mistake, though. There was no way she could trust this boy.</p><p>———</p><p>Long ago, another Ladybug and Black Cat holder chose sides, the opposite sides. The Black Cat choosing evil and the Ladybug heartbroken by his decision went against him. Since then the two miraculous have been on opposite sides.</p><p>She never got the specific details. Tikki may be a sweet kwami, but none of Marinette’s attempts to get her to talk about it worked. It mattered little anyway. Her first experience with a black cat miraculous holder had definitely been enough to help her know they were right about this.</p><p>Marinette tried not to think about these things at school, she had better things to think about while she was there. School, friends and of course Adrien. Normal girl with a normal life. She couldn’t be combining that piece of her life with the super heroine who single-handedly kept the city safe from villains. It would be maddening.</p><p>“Mari,” Alya asked, nudging her friend with her elbow, “are you paying attention?” She looked up directly at the teacher only to find that she wasn’t speaking, then she twisted back to see Alya.</p><p>“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”</p><p>“Oh, really? Then what was I just talking about?”</p><p>“You… we’re talking about… things?”</p><p>Alya sighed, “I swear were you thinking about Adrien again?”</p><p>“What, no,” Marinette said, taking the excuse and using it since it was such a common occurrence. </p><p>“You’re such a bad liar girl,” she said with a laugh, much to the relief of her friend. “Well anyway, I was mentioning the rumors of those superpowered people always fighting around Paris.”</p><p>“... Alya, they’re probably urban legends. Like that clown thing. Or vampires. Or-”</p><p>“Girl, this is why you have to pay more attention. I saw them, this spotted one, and another cat like one. Look, I got a video,” she said, handing Marinette the phone and headphones, already having the video open. “Now it’s not the best quality but just listen and watch. You’ll see.”</p><p>Marinette tried not to seem worried, but this was the exact opposite of a good thing. The last thing she needed were two lives colliding even more than they already had. “Okay…” And pulled open the video, such a shaky rendition that even she could barely make out the details in, but she knew it wouldn’t stop conspiracy theorists from going nuts.</p><p>“Do I always have to run into you,” the Ladybug in the video said, flicking her Yo-Yo back and forth like she was planning something. Marinette knew for a fact that in that moment she had been intent on using her lucky charm, so yeah, she was planning something.</p><p>“Because I’m just so likeable that you go out of your way to find me,” the even less visible Chat Noir said. She easily remembered that she had laughed at that comment, and even now she almost did. She had self-control though, well most of the time, and avoided the suspicious response.</p><p>“No one would try that,” she replied in a rather harsh tone, flinging out her Yo-Yo to hit him. Then the video cut out, surprisingly short since she didn’t believe she had moved.</p><p>Marinette frowned down at it. “I don’t really know if that’s proof…” she whispered, honestly really surprised Alya even heard her.</p><p>“Countless people have seen superheroes like this, look.” Alya took her phone away and typed into it a website URL. “There are pictures, even of this pair in particular. Evidence.”</p><p>“Alya, maybe this isn’t a topic-,” she was cut off by the bell though and Alya jumped up.</p><p>“My mom, she needed me to get out immediately. Meet up at your house tonight?”</p><p>“I’ll check with my parents,” Marinette called out, waving to Alya. A small part of her relieved the bell had rung. She didn’t need to explain to her friend why this topic wasn’t worth it. Heading outside she waved to Adrien, but of course avoided an actual conversation, she was to embarrassed to actually try without Alya to back her up.</p><p>———</p><p>Adrien was nervous as he headed across town in the easily blending disguise of Chat Noir. Well, easily blending as long as he stuck to dark and out of the way areas, which was the entire way to the meeting place.</p><p>He always had some worry that he would lose his miraculous when he went down here. Or more concerning, in some ways, that Ladybug had been killed. Despite her being his rival, he always had a small spot in his heart for her. She’d saved him before, both as Adrien and as Chat Noir, given the boy’s habit of being out in dangerous areas and from those rarely peaceful moments he’d gathered that the girl, villain or not, was a good person. Plus, she seemed just as young as he was.</p><p>“Are you going to come in,” the messenger at the door, Crimson, asked.</p><p>Adrien nodded then headed in, “so what did the guardian want me to do?”</p><p>Crimson paused, taking much longer than Adrien would have wanted them too. “Yeah, so this sounded strange when I heard it too, so just know I’m not making it up.” “Apparently the Guardians have made a deal with Master Fu, they want you to work with Ladybug.”</p><p>Adrien froze that definitely hadn’t been what he’d expected, “wait what?”</p><p>They sighed, “like I said, it sounded weird when I heard it too. Someone got a hold of the butterfly miraculous, though… they stole the peacock just last night. It's dangerous, they put differences aside and side with Fu.”</p><p>Nodding solemnly, Adrien tried not to seem too excited about the idea, “where do they want me to meet her?”</p><p>“Nine tonight, near the Eiffel Tower.”</p><p>“I’ll be there,” he promised, leaving perhaps faster than he normally would.</p><p>———</p><p>Marinette took the idea of working with her enemy about as well as anyone would have expected her to. After all, she’d been fighting Chat Noir for the past year and now they wanted her to give it all up for this Hawkmoth problem. So in this case perhaps the response of “you’re kidding, right,” was a good fit.</p><p>Fu sitting across from her didn’t seem to be revealing the joke though, instead he just enforced that yes he did in fact mean this. “It’s our best choice for the time being.”</p><p>Marinette tightened her fist for a moment, “you are aware we’re on opposite sides? You know good versus evil, creation vs destruction? The thing you all focused on for the past year, and now you want me to go against that and ally with him.”</p><p>“Ladybug, this is a much bigger threat than they pose to us, so yes. You will work with Chat Noir until Hawkmoth is defeated and the miraculous are safe.”</p><p>“And how do you know they won’t betray us?”</p><p>“We don’t and that is why you’ll need to be extra careful.”</p><p>Marinette nodded, at least that she could make sense of. Don’t trust Chat Noir, and when the end comes, she planned to betray him and put the world back to how it should be the two miraculous on the same side.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Chat Noir and Ladybug plan for meeting up together. Only of course to be interrupted before they can accomplish that.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Marinette, you’re being a little overly assumptive.” “He might not be that bad,” Tikki said, trying to comfort Marinette who at the moment was running through how to deal with this definitely dangerous miraculous holder. “Maybe you are basing him too much on those around him.” “He’s not that similar to Leopard.”</p><p>The name of the last Cat Miraculous holder froze her in her tracks. Whatever had led to him leaving, she was thankful for it. The one time they had fought, he’d been vicious and manipulative to the nearly killing her level. Then he was replaced by Chat Noir, who was less dangerous in retrospect. She still didn’t like to think about the old holder through he was a terrifying topic to consider, so she stuck with Chat Noir. “I offered him the chance switch to our side, tried showing him he was wrong, and he refused. Not only that, he said I was wrong and went straight back to fighting. How can you trust that?”</p><p>Her phone’s ringtone rang out before Tikki could respond. Marinette immediately reached out, grabbing her phone in one shaking, more panicked by the second. “Right Alya,” she exclaimed, she’d forgotten completely. “What do I tell her?”</p><p>Even as she asked this, she clicked the answer button, leaving Tikki unable to give her a suggestion. “Hey Alya,” her words came out a little choked. “What’s up?”</p><p>“I won’t be able to come over tonight.” </p><p>Marinette felt overjoyed and then immediately guilty. She shouldn’t be happy about not being able to hang out with her friend, but it meant she wouldn’t have to lie. “What happened?’</p><p>“So you remember how I mentioned the superheroes earlier today? The ones that you swore were not real?” Alya seemed thrilled enough at the topic that it made Marinette nervous. Had something come up?</p><p>“Yes, the ones that seem a little over focused on?”</p><p>“Well, someone said that they saw one of them destroy the Eiffel Tower. The news has footage on the internet.” </p><p>“Oh, that’s-” Marinette froze, taking too long to process what Alya had said. ‘Them’, the superpowered people. Otherwise known as her and Chat Noir. Which when she considered it made no sense. She wasn’t out right now. “Horrible.” “What’s happening?”</p><p>“And here I thought you didn’t believe in that?” Marinette began crafting a response, but Alya’s tone immediately responded in a thrilled voice. “It is a kind of horrible situation, but also great, some sort of attack.” </p><p>And that probably wasn’t him, she assumed. The irritating cat didn’t seem that dramatic or violent. She could figure out later, though. “You’re not planning on going out there, right?”</p><p>“Well, of course I’m going out there, this could be my chance to become a real reporter.” “The current footage is shaky, mine could provide such a great opportunity.” Despite no sight on her friend, Marinette could easily see her friend grinning her mind’s eye, this was something she had always wanted.</p><p>She sighed, “Alya, shouldn’t you… I don’t know. Avoid this, if it is an attack then it could be dangerous.”</p><p>“There’s nothing to worry about Marinette. If there’s a supervillain, there will be a superhero right behind! Once in a lifetime opportunity.” In the background, a door slammed shut. “I’ve got to go though, I’m headed out. I’ll show you the footage tomorrow!” The beep of the phone hanging up came after that.</p><p>As soon as she hung up, Marinette immediately panicked. “Why didn’t I stop her? She can’t be heading out there. She’s my friend, and it’s dangerous, and what if she sees Ladybug and recognizes me? Or-”</p><p>Tikki’s voice interrupted her, “Marinette, I know you’re worried about your friend but we have to go.” </p><p>Taking a moment, she calmed herself down. “You’re right. We can’t do anything with me panicking in here.” “Tikki spots-”</p><p>“Wait, Marinette, we need to discuss something. When you finish defeating them, you need to break the object and capture the akuma.” “After that you have an ability, Miraculous Ladybug, call that out and it should revert any damage.”</p><p>The information seemed simple enough to remember, “got it. Tikki, Spots on,” she called out. And with that, she transformed into Ladybug.</p><p>———</p><p>Adrien sat down at the foot of his bed scrolling through his phone for, much to his embarrassment, theories on ‘the mysterious superheroes of Paris’. It was easy to get immersed reading through the short posts, scanning for anything that might tell him more about Ladybug and also half a dozen hilariously wrong things about him. He did this more often than he wanted to, but tonight he was desperate to find the information. </p><p>Plagg, of course, found it hilarious when Adrien turned to this source. He swore the occurrence wasn’t as hilarious or unfamiliar as the kwami made it out to be.</p><p>Besides, he wanted to figure out more about his soon to be teammate and this and his personal experience, which just involved fighting and that one weird time she saved him, were all he had to go off of. Despite Plagg’s comments, he didn’t provide a better solution. So this was the only choice.</p><p>Tonight the website seemed to get increasingly more out of the box. Honestly, if he were going off this, he’d end up believing she was an ancient government experiment that may either hunt vampires, assassinate enemies of the French government, or have a goal of world domination. Something told him that wasn’t accurate. Though he supposed it wasn’t a complete waste of time, a joke about it would be hilarious. </p><p>“Why do the guardians have to be so secretive about everything,” he asked with an auditable sigh. Even if it could make a funny joke, it wasn’t what he’d been looking for.</p><p>The black kwami reappeared from where he’d been relaxing. “Who knows? Personally, I think we should spread the knowledge of our existence throughout the world.”</p><p>“Let me guess, because then everyone would recognize your greatness and give you more cheese?”</p><p>“Exactly, instead, though you’re the only one here giving it to me,” Plagg said rather dramatically.</p><p>Adrien rolled his eyes, “you’re no help,” he said refreshing the browser one last time. In the past few minutes a brief clip had been posted with the title ‘Attack On the Eiffel Tower?’ The comments were going crazy over it. And the brief clip showed what he assumed to be an akuma. “We need to go.”</p><p>“Oh, come on, we have thirty minutes.” </p><p>“There’s a- one of those… akumas.” He reached out, not even waiting for a response. He needed to hurry. “Plagg claws out.”</p><p>———</p><p>As Chat Noir he raced across the city, focusing on the moonlight peeking through the cloud and street lamps that lit the way as he headed through the city. He probably could have used night vision, but he was in a hurry. He needed to get to the Eiffel Tower.</p><p>His baton extended out multiple times to catch him as he jumped, he reached the spot quickly noticing the Akuma immediately. The woman surrounded by shadows that overwhelmed the area around her surrounding and creatures that it would appear had already knocked down the Eiffel Tower.</p><p>Beside him he heard a thump as Ladybug landed nearby, not beside him though one would note. He sighed, some things could just never change. Quietly the cat themed superhero ran towards her, “happen to have a plan?” His voice came out more frustrated than he had intended, earning him a glare from his now partner.</p><p>Her jaw clenched, she spoke clearly hostile in tone, “trying to figure that out.” </p><p>Adrien sighed, standing beside her, though in all honesty he became tired of waiting. Step one of that poor choice he was about to make. “Best way to learn about someone is to see them in action.” Referring to the akuma in this case, though it could fit them too, kind of the ‘we’ll prove we can trust each other’ response. And with that, he flew into action. Pushing himself off the ground and straight towards the Akuma.</p><p>Pulling his baton off the ground, he aimed to use it to hit the akuma. And that’s when she turned to him and almost immediately one of the creatures, if that was what they could call them, moved into his path, one massive shadowing claw turning solid and then knocking him off target and into the ground.</p><p>———</p><p>Marinette sighed, did he want the news’s attention that much? The recording was new, but she saw no reason why he would jump into things. She needed to make a plan first, and if anything he should listen to her about it.</p><p>It would seem that she wouldn’t get the chance to put one together though as one creature hit Chat Noir out of the air. It didn’t take much analysis to see the tension in its movements as it prepared for an attack. Almost like a real living thing. In a split second situation she abandoned focus on finding the object and raced towards him, throwing her Yo-Yo to block the creature. It fell back a little, prompting her to hit it again and again. The creature fell back into the complete darkness where a tree blocked out both the moon and lamplight and it dissipated. She stared at the area, watching for a creature that never returned focus, then switched to focusing on the other ‘hero’.</p><p>“You can’t just leap into these things,” she said, holding a hand out and pulling him up off the ground. “We need to get over to her.”</p><p>He held out his hands in a frustrated gesture. “That’s what I was trying to do.”</p><p>“We need to break the object holding the akuma, have you figured out what it is?”</p><p>He froze, searching the area until eventually he pointed towards the book clutched to her side. “Maybe that.”</p><p>She glanced at the book. A large object, though she couldn’t make out details about it, “that would make sense.” “I’ll use my ability, maybe it will get us there.”</p><p>———</p><p>A grin spread across his face. A surprise when you considered he had just plummeted to the ground after being hit by some magical creature that had destroyed the Eiffel Tower. This was the first time Ladybug had actually seemed like she was working with him in the short time they’d been partners even if it did involve some sort of arguments it felt like a start. Which was exciting to him, since he always wanted to work together with someone. The closest he’d gotten was Crimson, who basically just told him what the guardians wanted, and Plagg. Anyone else was far away.</p><p>Ladybug ran ahead, calling out the words Lucky Charm, and something landed in her hands. He didn’t focus on it, his current goal being to get the creatures away with the basis of the one he’d seen her knock force into the darkness away from him. One that he noticed didn’t seem to come back afterwards. He ran through the park, attracting as many of the creatures to follow after him.</p><p>———</p><p>This plan felt really stupid, not that Marinette was going to say anything about it to Chat Noir. So far it involved her object, something similar to a basketball that was really leaving her to wonder if the Ladybug miraculous had been meant for combat. How was she going to use this, though? Well, since her entire plan relied on hoping akuma’s reacted on reflexes, it wasn’t… great. She sighed, ‘this can’t go well.’</p><p>She swung over right in front of the akuma, who was still almost like she wasn’t focused on the battle. Even when Marinette landed near her, the Akuma didn’t react completely distracted. It was a questionable thing. Maybe she could just take the book. This felt off, though.</p><p>Then someone ran through her peripheral vision and she remembered a bit of a problem, Alya, and one of the creatures began to appear behind her. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Admittedly this and chapter 3 were one chapter, but it just felt better split up so now it’s split up.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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